JP2007514253A - Image item display method, apparatus, and computer program for music content - Google Patents

Abstract

A method is provided for displaying image items associated with music content. The method identifies one or more features of the music content, searches for a corresponding image item based on the one or more features identified from the first remote network, and reads the corresponding image item from the first remote network And image items corresponding to the music content.

Description

  The present invention relates generally to interactive systems that store and / or play music content, and more particularly to interactive systems that use content identifiers to download image items such as CD jackets and represent music content.

Interactive systems are known in the field of storing and playing music content such as music, speech, audio books and the like. Interactive systems include music content playback devices such as personal computers, laptop computers, or CD players, MP3 players, personal digital assistants, or wireless receivers. Music content can be displayed as icons on the display screen. In general, the icons must be specially created or selected from a plurality of default icons in the interactive system. In general, in current interactive systems, there is no way to graphically display stored, downloaded, or played music content to the user, especially when the graphic display is associated with music content.
JA Haitsma, Ton Kalker, A highly robust audio fingerprinting system, IRCAM , 2002 Ton Kalker, Applications and Challenges for Audio Fingerprinting, Watermarking versus Fingerprinting workshop, New York 111th AES Convention, NY, December 3, 2001

  Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method and interactive system that overcomes these and other disadvantages of the prior art.

  Accordingly, a method for displaying image items corresponding to music content is provided. The method includes identifying one or more characteristics of the music content, searching for a corresponding image item from the first remote network based on the identified one or more characteristics, and searching for the corresponding image item on the first remote network. And a step of displaying an image item corresponding to the music content.

  The step of identifying may include searching for a portion having one or more features from the music content and reading one or more features from the portion. The portion may have an ID3 tag.

  The step of identifying may comprise searching for one or more features corresponding to the music content from the second remote network and reading one or more features from the second remote network. The second remote network may have a plurality of music content and a database having one or more corresponding features for each of the plurality of music content. The identifying step may also include analyzing the music content to obtain an audio fingerprint having one or more features.

  The step of displaying may include a step of reducing the image item to a thumbnail icon either before reading or following reading. The step of reducing may further comprise the step of reducing the resolution of the image item either prior to reading or following reading.

  The method may further comprise storing the image item following reading.

  The identifying step may be started automatically when an event occurs. The event may be one of storing music content, playing music content, receiving transmission of music content, and downloading music content. The identifying step may also be initiated by a manual instruction from the user.

  The displaying step may be started automatically when an event occurs. The event may be one of storing music content, playing music content, receiving transmission of music content, and downloading music content. The displaying step may also be initiated by a manual instruction from the user.

  The image item may be a CD jacket corresponding to at least music content.

  The music content may be music from a plurality of music corresponding to the CD jacket. And the step of displaying may further comprise the step of changing the CD jacket to show music. The step of changing may further include a step of displaying a numerical value indicating the music number of the music together with the CD jacket.

  An apparatus for displaying image items corresponding to music content is also provided. The apparatus operatively connected to a remote network, identifying one or more characteristics of the music content, searching for a corresponding image item from the remote network based on the identified one or more characteristics; and A processor that reads the corresponding image item from the first remote network and a display that displays the image item corresponding to the music content.

  A computer program for executing the method of the present invention and a program storage device for storing the computer program are also provided.

  These and other features, features, and advantages of the apparatus and method of the present invention will be better understood with reference to the following description, claims, and accompanying drawings.

  While the present invention is applicable to many and various types of devices and music content, it has been found to be particularly useful in musical compositions. Thus, without limiting the application of the present invention to music, the present invention is described in such an environment. Those skilled in the art will also appreciate that the music content can be speech, audiobooks, and the like.

  FIG. 1 shows an apparatus for displaying image items corresponding to music content. This apparatus is designated with reference numeral 100. One skilled in the art will appreciate that the device can be any device that can play music content and display representative image items. Examples of such device 100 include, but are not limited to, personal computer, laptop computer, and music content playback devices such as CD players, MP3 players, personal digital assistants, and wireless receivers. The device 100 generally includes one or more speakers 102 that play music content and a display 104. As described below, the display 104 can display image items representing music content, such as a corresponding CD jacket. Display 104 may be specialized for such functions or may perform other functions of device 100.

  The apparatus further includes a processor 106 that performs the method of the present invention. The processor 106 may specialize in such functions or may perform other functions of the apparatus 100. The processor 106 controls the speaker 102 and display 104 either directly or indirectly through a suitable driver. The device 100 further comprises a storage device 108, such as a storage device for storing music content, operatively connected to the processor. The storage device 108 may also store program instructions for performing other functions of the device 100 and for performing the methods of the present invention. Although storage device 108 is shown in FIG. 1 as a single device, those skilled in the art will appreciate that multiple devices may be provided and that different types of storage devices may be provided. For example, the storage device 108 may be implemented as a hard drive that stores music content and an integrated chip that stores program instructions.

  The apparatus may further include an input device 110 that inputs data or instructions to the processor 106. The input device 110 receives music content from other devices such as a keyboard / keypad, mouse, stylus pen, trackball, voice recognition system, touch screen, one or more switches / button pads, MP3 player, CD / DVD drive, etc. It can be any input device known in the art, such as an uploading connector. Device 100 also includes a communication device 112, such as a modem, that is operatively connected to a remote network 114, such as the Internet, under the control of processor 106. Device 100 may also include a wireless receiver, illustrated by antenna 116. The wireless receiver is under processor control and is configured to receive, demultiplex, and / or format any type of known radio, such as FM, AM, wired, and satellite.

  A method for displaying image items corresponding to music content is described in connection with FIGS. The method assumes that music content is available on device 100 by either input device 110, remote network 114, or wireless receiver 116, unless otherwise specified. The method identifies one or more features of the music content. The one or more features may be the composer, performer, song title, corresponding album (CD) that has the song as part, song release year, song genre, and the like.

  After the one or more features are identified, the device searches the remote network 114 for a corresponding image item based on the identified one or more features. Specifically, the processor 116 instructs the modem to communicate with the remote network, reads the corresponding image item from the remote network 114, and displays the image item corresponding to the music content on the display 104. The remote network 114 may be a website having an address on the Internet, more specifically, a database of image items such as CD jackets stored for download. Such an Internet website is www.cover-search.com. For example, the identified one or more features may be the song title and artist of the music content. Processor 106 communicates with www.cover-search.com via modem 112 and provides song titles and artists for database searches. The processor then reads the CD jacket corresponding to the search result. If the search result is one or more CD jackets, more features may be provided to narrow the search. Alternatively, all CD jackets obtained as a result of the search may be read out. The user of the device 100 may then select from the CD jacket that has been read for display. The displayed CD jacket then functions as a link for playing the corresponding music content.

  Identifying the characteristics of the music content may include searching for a characteristic part from the music content itself and reading the characteristic from the part. The music content portion may be an ID3 tag. The ID3 tag is 128-byte data added to the end of the music content file. The ID3 tag has a 3-byte word “tag”, 30 bytes for the song name, 30 bytes for the artist, 30 bytes for the corresponding album name, 4 bytes for the year of publication, 30 bytes for the comment, and One byte is used for the genre. Unused bytes are filled with binary zeros. The genre field has a value corresponding to a predetermined list of 80 genres (values 0 to 79). If the music content has such a tag, the processor 106 looks for the tag from the music content. If the tag is an ID3 tag, the processor 106 looks for the last 128 bytes of the word “tag” in the music content file. The processor 106 then reads the characteristics of each field and uses the same to look up the corresponding image item from the remote network 114. As explained above, the search may be initiated using any or a combination of features such as song title and artist. Any of the other identified features may be added to the search such that there are no search results or more than one.

  The identification of the features of the music content also includes searching one or more features corresponding to the music content from the remote network 114 (different or identical to the remote network used to search for the image item), and one A step of reading the above features from the remote network 114 may be included. In this case, the remote network may include a plurality of music contents and a database having one or more corresponding features for each of the plurality of music contents. The remote network may be an internet website such as www.musicbrainz.org. Such websites have a database of music metadata that can be used to identify music content. In this case, the processor 106 communicates with the remote network via the modem 112 to determine one or more characteristics of the music content and retrieve some result from the website. The processor then looks for the corresponding image item from the remote network 114, using the same as described above.

  Identifying the characteristics of the music content may also include analyzing the music content itself to obtain an audio fingerprint having one or more characteristics. Such audio fingerprints are conventionally known as Non-Patent Document 1 and Non-Patent Document 2. The disclosures of these documents are incorporated herein by reference.

  As described above, an image item such as a CD jacket is displayed on the display 104 and represents music content. Such CD jackets are often available in full size and high resolution for printing. In such an example, it may be desirable to reduce the image item to a thumbnail icon either before being read from the remote network 114 or after being read by the processor 106. Further, the reduction may also include reducing the resolution of the image item before displaying the image item on the display 104. As with reduction, resolution reduction may occur either before being read from remote network 114 or after being read by processor 106. For example, when a song is being played on the wireless device 100, the image item may be read and displayed on the display 104 without being stored in the storage device 108. In addition, the image item may be read and stored in the storage device 108 after the reading. In the latter, the image item can always be displayed.

  The identification process includes storing music content in storage device 108, playing music content on speaker 102, receiving music content transmission from antenna 116 (or other transmission means), and music content from remote network 114. It can be started automatically when an event such as a download occurs. The identification process may also be initiated by a manual instruction from the user, such as through the input device 110. The display of the image item is also stored in the music content storage device 108, played on the speaker 102 of the music content, received from the music content antenna 116 (or other transmission means), and received from the music content. It may be automatically started when an event such as a download from the remote network 114 occurs. The display of the image item may also be initiated by a manual instruction from the user, such as through the input device 110. When a command is received by the processor 106 to download music content, such as, for example, downloading a song from the Internet 114, the start of the download is a result of identifying one or more features of the music content and identifying the features. Both display of the found representative image item may be started. Similarly, when a command is received by the processor 106 to match a specific frequency, music content such as a song is transmitted at that frequency and played on the speaker 102, the reproduction (playback) of the music content has been described above. As such, the instruction and display process may begin.

  When the music content is a song from a plurality of songs included in the album, an instruction for identifying the song and distinguishing the song from other songs in the album may be displayed together with the image item. Each song in the album must not have a corresponding image item. All songs identified with the album may have only a single representative image item, such as a CD jacket. Thus, the method of the present invention may change the CD jacket to show the music. Referring again to FIG. 2, the display 104 of FIG. 1 is shown. The display 104 has an image item 200 corresponding to music content. The display 104 further includes an image item 202 as a CD jacket, in which the image item 202 is modified to show music from the corresponding album. As shown by image item 202 in FIG. 2, the step of changing may include displaying a numerical value 204 indicating the song number of the song along with the CD jacket. For example, when the music content is the third song in the album, the image item 202 may be changed so that at least a part of the image item 202 is covered with the number “3”. The numerical value 204 may be placed anywhere inside the image item 202 or may be placed outside the image item 202. Those skilled in the art understand that other types of changes may be made to the image item 202, such as a song title or a shortened version of the song title or an additional image item, to indicate a particular song from among the songs of the album. will do.

  The method of the present invention is particularly suitable for execution by a computer software program, such as a computer software program that preferably has modules corresponding to the individual steps of the method. Such software may, of course, be incorporated in a computer readable medium such as an integrated chip or peripheral device.

  While what has been considered as the preferred embodiment of the invention has been described, it will be understood that various modifications and changes in form or detail may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention. Let's go. Accordingly, the invention is not limited to the forms described and illustrated, but is to be construed as including all modifications that fall within the scope of the following claims.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the apparatus of the present invention. Fig. 2 shows a display of the device of Fig. 1;

Claims (20)

A method for displaying image items corresponding to music content, comprising:
Identifying one or more characteristics of the music content;
Locating the corresponding image item from a first remote network based on the identified one or more features;
Reading the corresponding image item from the first remote network; and displaying the image item corresponding to the music content:
Having a method. The identifying step is:
The method of claim 1, comprising: looking for a portion having the one or more features from the music content; and reading the one or more features from the portion.   The method of claim 2, wherein the portion has an ID3 tag. The identifying step is:
The method of claim 1, comprising: searching for the one or more features corresponding to the music content from a second remote network; and reading the one or more features from the second remote network.   The method of claim 4, wherein the second remote network comprises a database having a plurality of music content and one or more corresponding features for each of the plurality of music content.   The method of claim 1, wherein the identifying comprises analyzing the music content to obtain an audio fingerprint having the one or more features.   The method of claim 1, wherein the displaying comprises reducing the image item to a thumbnail icon either prior to reading or subsequent to reading.   The method of claim 6, wherein the reducing further comprises reducing the resolution of the image item either prior to reading or subsequent to reading.   The method of claim 1, further comprising storing the image item following reading.   The method of claim 1, wherein the identifying step is automatically initiated when an event occurs.   The method of claim 9, wherein the event is one of storing the music content, playing the music content, receiving a transmission of the music content, and downloading the music content.   The method of claim 1, wherein the identifying step is initiated by a manual instruction from a user.   The method of claim 1, wherein the displaying step is automatically initiated upon the occurrence of an event.   The method of claim 12, wherein the event is one of storing the music content, playing the music content, receiving a transmission of the music content, and downloading the music content.   The method of claim 1, wherein the displaying is initiated by a manual instruction from a user.   The method of claim 1, wherein the image item is a CD jacket corresponding to at least the music content.   The method of claim 1, wherein the music content is music from a plurality of music corresponding to the CD jacket, and the displaying further comprises changing the CD jacket to indicate the music. .   18. The method of claim 17, wherein the step of changing comprises displaying a numerical value with the CD jacket, wherein the numerical value indicates a music number of the song. A computer program embedded in a computer readable medium for displaying image items corresponding to music content:
Computer readable program code means for identifying one or more characteristics of the music content;
Computer readable program code means for searching the corresponding image item from a remote network based on the identified one or more features;
Computer readable program code means for reading the corresponding image item from the remote network; and computer readable program code means for displaying the image item corresponding to the music content. A device for displaying image items corresponding to music content:
A modem operably connected to a remote network;
A processor that identifies one or more characteristics of the music content; and searches for the corresponding image item from the remote network based on the identified one or more characteristics; and reads the corresponding image item from the remote network And a display for displaying the image item corresponding to the music content.

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